Phila Inquire: Santorum - Trump must now deliver for working families

A political earthquake shook the nation and the world Tuesday when Donald Trump shocked all the prognosticators and won the presidency.

Those same pundits are digging through the wreckage of their predictions to try to figure out why Trump was able to prove them wrong, but to me, the answer was on full display over two years ago during a chance meeting I had with Trump at his New York office.

In the summer of 2014, Trump reached out to me to stop by his office the next time I was in Manhattan. Later that summer, I dropped by Trump Towers with my daughter Sarah Maria. When we walked into his office, he was sitting behind his desk holding a copy of my book Blue Collar Conservatives that I had published that spring.

The first thing he said: "I read your book."

To which I laughed and said, "The hell you read my book."

Trump shot back, "I did, it was great!"

So I did the obvious thing, I quizzed him on the message in my book - that the great middle of America was hollowing out as a result of big-government policies that were helping the elites but leaving blue-collar families behind. And to my great surprise, Trump passed my test with flying colors.

We discussed the problems facing Middle America - specifically the implications of unfettered globalization on American manufacturing and its effect on wages for blue-collar families.

The billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump not only got it, he was as upset as I was that these families were being left behind. He said he might run for president and, if he did, he wanted to take that message to the American voter - and did he ever.

You saw the fruits of Trump's labor on Election Day in Democratic strongholds like Luzerne County in northeast Pennsylvania that were once reliably union Democrats and overwhelmingly took a chance on a brash billionaire who spoke their language.

These families have been told globalization and unfettered free trade should come at the cost of the American worker, and they are sick and tired of their jobs being shipped overseas. They are told we need to abandon the rule of law and allow open borders because amnesty is good for economic growth, but voters recognized the simple laws of supply and demand dictate that the more the labor force grows, the lower the resulting equilibrium salary.

But now it is time for President-elect Trump to deliver for these families who put their faith in him. This means prioritizing the American worker at every step and fulfilling his campaign promises.